


katie get your gun

by waterfront



Category: From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series
Genre: All Human, Explosions, F/M, Guns, Justified!AU, jacob fuller is a man of god but also willing to kill the man who hurts his little girl, kate is a spitfire with a loaded shot gun and a law degree, set in kentucky so bear with me, seth is a us marshall with a gun and a cowboy hat, some rednecks which are scarier than culebras tbh, this is AU AF so sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-19
Updated: 2016-12-19
Packaged: 2018-09-09 18:42:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8907664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/waterfront/pseuds/waterfront
Summary: It's time for the big bad Marshall to meet Papa Bear Fuller. Not even pulled pork and Kentucky bourbon can save them now. 
Justified!AU. Based on the prompt: AU where kate defends Seth and her relationship with Seth to her father.





	

Jacob Fuller put down the third glass on the place setting with such a force, it made the silverware jump.

Kate pursed her lips, and turned away from her crockpot, wooden spoon on her hip.

               “Daddy, you said you’d give him a chance. And that doesn’t mean acting like a bitter old man.”

               “Katie-cakes, I told you I’d meet the man in your life. I didn’t say anything about being excited about it. Especially when it’s one of the Gecko boys.”

She dropped the spoon back in the pot and crossed her arms. Jacob Fuller stood up to full height, one hand wrapping around the back of the chair. The rest of the chairs and the table itself were housewarming gifts, cut down and built by her father, after she moved back to Harlan with a degree in legal studies. The house they stood in had been her grandparents, living in the Fuller family for generations, but given Jacob’s recent heart attack, the two remaining Fuller children decided it would be best if their father moved to something small, easier to maintain, and closer to the hospital. The Fuller home had been left empty until the heir returned and dusted away the cobwebs.

She had been there about a year when Seth Gecko returned in a way the county never really expected.

               “You know he’s not like that anymore.”

               “Clipping a star on your jacket doesn’t recount a life of bad decisions.”

               “He’s a US Deputy Marshall, Daddy. Not a mall cop.” At that, Jacob frowned, working furiously to counteract her point. Kate nodded curtly and went back to her cooking. “Besides, I’m making your favorite. Pulled pork sandwiches and mashed potatoes. Just eat your food and give him a chance.”

She heard him sigh deeply behind her. “You’re just young to remember the terror of the Gecko boys.”

Kate ground her teeth and flipped the pork simmering in her crockpot. “No, Daddy, I don’t remember the ‘terror’ of two sixteen-year-old hooligans from the hollers. Why don’t you explain it to me?”

               “They might have been young, but that don’t mean what they did wasn’t very real and very harmful to a lot of people. Them robberies had folks at gun point. What if something went wrong and a shot went off and hit somebody? And that house fire led to a three day black out—,”

               “Nobody was ever able to prove the Geckos started that fire!” Kate snapped off the cooker and whipped open her cabinet. She knew he would poke and prod and pull at her reasons for choosing the (reformed) local troublemaker. But ask anyone at the courthouse; Seth Gecko’s record for systematically bringing in notorious members of the Dixie Mafia was unprecedented, if not downright shocking. “That Ray Gecko was a mean son of a gun, and his boys only went out on those robberies because Ray refused to get a job and they were hungry.”

She pulled three plates into her arms and huffed when she turned around. But at the sight of her father dampened her building frustration. His face was sullen, his eyes sad.

               “Katie, I’m only worried about you. US Marshall or not, Seth Gecko was once a very dangerous man.”

               “But he’s not anymore,” she pleaded. Seth was something different the moment he rolled into court one day to testify. Her surprise was insurmountable when Lynda from accounting told her he was THAT Seth Gecko. She knew the stories. She knew the rumors. She knew his brother Richie had done a couple of stints in Lexington. But Seth had been out for years. Out of a life of crime, out of Kentucky, out making the world a better place. What would it take to convince her daddy that Seth had changed?

Jacob then adjusted himself and pulled at his pastor’s collar, obviously growing uncomfortable.

               “Now don’t get upset, but maybe you’re not thinking straight here. He’s a good looking man, Katie, there’s no doubting that, but he’s maybe got you all hookwinked with his pretty eyes—,”

               “DADDY!”

* * *

 

Seth bounced up the steps of the Fuller family home two at a time, with the brim of his wide hat pulled down low. It had been a sunny day and the paperwork for the last case had gone, dare he say, smoothly. Seth, despite his upbringing in a very rural part of Kentucky, wasn’t a religious man, but he could take good omens when they came. Bill at the liquor store had a discount on the exact bottle of Jim Beam Seth had been after, per Kate’s suggestion. And he hadn’t gotten a call about a break-in in two days. Maybe the swirling knot of nerves in his gut was wrong. Maybe meeting Pastor Fuller outside the church, standing next to his daughter, implying they did all sorts of unholy things in the dark of the night—

Seth shook his head slightly, clearing away thoughts of bad omens, and knocked with two knuckles on the doorframe.

There was a clattering of what sounded like silverware and Kate appeared behind the door screen in a mood that could only be described as seething. Her lips were scrunched up in a way that denounced she was about a minute away from throwing a pan at the object of her frustration. He had only gotten that look two times before: once, when he didn’t come home for three days and he left his cellphone off when the Marshalls were tracking two fugitives in Tennessee, and twice, after a fight about Kate’s old boyfriend asking her to the county fair.

               “How’s it going?” He muttered through the screen, a small grin creeping over his lips. She was tiny, but mighty, Eddie, his immediate boss, often said after she blew through the Marshalls office on a mission for the courthouse. Seth quietly wholeheartedly agreed.

               “Not well,” she ground out. She opened the door and he crossed into the generational house, removing his cowboy hat as he went.

               “Well, I’ve got alcohol and that can only escalate the situation.”

She took the Jim Beam out of his brown bag and bit her lip. “Maybe you can just drink him under the table.”

               “If you thought that’d help . . .” Seth dropped his hat onto the foyer hook and watched her hips sway in the green cotton dress that was modest and heart-pounding all at once. His eyes snapped to hers when she whirled around and glared at him just before the open door to the kitchen.

               “Now what are the rules?” She hissed at him in a low voice.

               “No swearing, no cursing, and no rough-housing.” He counted on his fingers. “No mention of shooting, arresting, or handcuffing anyone in or around Harlan county because chances are, they’ve all confessed to Daddy Fuller.” Seth stepped forward, one hand straying forward towards her lower back. Kate narrowed her eyes at him but didn’t move away. “And absolutely, unconditionally, _on pain of death,_ no mentioning, hinting, or implying _in any way_ that I’ve seen you naked.”

Seth grinned wickedly, both hands sliding onto her hips, but she slapped them away and shoved a finger into his smirking face.

               “I’m calling this off. You’re going home. I’m telling Daddy you’re sick and can’t make it— this was a bad idea—,”

Seth’s fingers curled around hers and kissed her knuckle, his expression playfully contrite.

               “Katie, I promise I’ll behave.” She wavered, but her brow was still furrowed. He leaned forward and kissed her on her forehead. “You gotta relax. Everything is going to be fine. We’re going to go in there and convince your father that we’re the perfect, _pious_ couple.”

               “You get handsy when you’re nervous and don’t want to show it.” Kate watched him through narrowed eyes. “I know you too well, Gecko. Don’t think you can hide from me.”

Seth laughed through his nose and kissed her cheek. “You got me there. I’m sweating like a sinner in church and we haven’t even had the first course yet.”

Kate nodded and took a deep breath, her eyes melting into his. “You’re right. We can do this.” She stepped back, breaking physical contact. She was determined about her rules.

               “Lead the way, princess.”

She opened the door to Jacob Fuller sitting at the table, facing them, his fingers tented on the table in front of him. Seth had seen men contemplate murder before and truth be told, Pastor Fuller looked only a tick away.

               “Daddy?”

The pastor’s expression softened slightly when his eyes fell on his daughter, and he stood to his feet.

               “This is US Deputy Marshall, Seth Gecko.”

For a holy man who supposedly guided his flock away from eternal damnation, Jacob Fuller housed a fair amount of fire and brimstone behind two deep set eyes. His palm was surprisingly cool as it slid into Seth’s hand in greeting. He imagined it would be a relief to those weighed down with sin, but Seth could only picture their ice grip around his throat— and by Jacob’s barely hidden sour expression, he was envisioning strangling Seth as much as he feared it.

               “Good to finally meet you, sir.”

Jacob only grunted. Kate stood between them, wringing her hands in her dress.

               “Daddy, Seth brought your favorite.” She presented the Jim Beam from the folds of her skirt and Jacob took it and eyed it as though inspecting it for poison. Kate took the opportunity to nudge Seth and jerked her head towards the glasses cabinet. As though rehearsed, Seth nearly hopped forward and took out two glasses.

               “Let me get you something for that, sir.”

               “I prefer Pastor.” Kate glared at her father while Seth’s back was turned. “I mean— call me Jacob.”

               “I’d like to earn that first name basis, if you don’t mind.” The two men caught eyes and Seth nodded sternly. One of Jacob’s grey eyebrows lifted slightly as he poured a two finger for himself, Katie-cakes, and his daughter’s boyfriend. Kate’s heart skipped and prayed silently that her daddy’s hard shell had been at least rattled by Seth’s old school respect.

Jacob capped the Beam and set the bottle on the table, standing up right with the glass in his hands. The three held their glasses outward.

               “What should we toast to?” Jacob asked quietly, his voice one octave above a grumble. “Longevity and luck?”

               “How ‘bout what’s most precious to the both of us?” Seth’s eyes twinkled in their private way when he glanced to her. She could help but smile at him. They really could weather anything. “Ms. Kate here?”

               “Alright, good move, but don’t press your luck,” Jacob muttered into his glass. Seth glanced at Kate again and swallowed the grin with a sip of bourbon.

The sweetness made Kate’s mouth pucker but it went down easily enough. She was going to have just slap him the next time they were alone . . .

Silence was beginning to build like water trapped in a dam.

Seth lowered his glass and began rifling through the talking points Kate had gone over with him earlier that morning. In his defense, however, she had just come out of the shower and smelled like peaches and—

Something glinted in the window behind Kate and Seth almost broke rule number one: no swearing.

               “GET DOWN!”

The window pane shattered and Seth leapt forward over Kate. The pastor tumbled to the side as the house was suddenly pilfered with bullets. Plates and cups shattered. Wood was ripped up into the air. Seth pressed Kate into the counter corner, the brunt of his body covering hers, her hands around her ears. Glass shards rained down like splintered snowflakes and Seth nearly kicked himself for believing in good omens.

Suddenly, the rain of bullets ceased and Seth felt Kate sigh beneath him, as though more frustrated than scared. He leaned away and took out his gun from his holster, and his phone out from his pocket.

               “Daddy, are you okay?”

Pastor fuller lay on his side, nearly under the table, clutching his arm. There was blood seeping through his jacket. “I’m alright, baby. Just got a good chunk of my arm taken out, but I’ll be fine.”

Kate huffed and yanked the white table cloth to the ground, the remains of the plates and glass cups shattering as they hit the wood floor.

               “Oh, Daddy . . .” She crawled across the floor and ripped a corner of the tablecloth in half. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and tied her father’s arm.

               “This is US Deputy Seth Gecko, calling from the old Fuller house out on route 9. There’s been gunfire and at least one civilian has been injured. Send some cars and an ambulance.” Seth snapped his phone shut and rose to his feet. He could see movement on the horizon, but not a recognizable face.

               “You’re surprisingly calm for someone who just got shot at,” Jacob said coolly. Kate tried to keep her face from coloring. “These guys friends of yours, Gecko?”

               “Sir, I have a list of people wanting to kill me. But I assure you, none of them are—,”

               “C’mon out here, Deputy, it’s your old pal, Warren Pritchard, and I just want a word.”

Seth grimaced, not daring to look at the pastor’s face.

He cocked his gun and peaked over the window ledge. There, on the blue grass hill, the redneck waved.

               “Pritchard, I swear, of all the things I’m going to arrest you for, slander is going to be on the top of the list,” Seth yelled out. He counted only two other guys on the front of the house. If this was an attack, even a brainless twit like Warren would have known to come more prepared. “I have never liked you. Not a day in my life.”

The toothy smile on the far away face faded. “Really? Like, not even for a second?”

Kate tried to hide her smile but her father seemed less amused.

               “You’ve kind of put me in a bind here, Warren.” Seth called. “You see, my girlfriend and her pastor daddy are in here. Under normal circumstances, I’d be happy to come out and chat with you, but I’ve got her honor, and now his, to protect. Plus, you kinda shot him in the arm.”

               “I did? Aw, man, Seth, I’m real sorry.” The thick Southern accent was heavy with true remorse. “I didn’t think y’all would be home, Ms. Kate.”

Seth raised an eyebrow to Kate, who rolled her eyes. She cleared her throat and answered: “This is my house, Warren. I live here. All the time.”

Seth moved along the wall into the foyer, staying low, and glanced out the front door.

               “Well, shit, Ms. Kate. I didn’t mean for y’all to get caught up in this.”

               “Then what are you doing here, Pritchard?” Seth hollered from his new position.

               “It was just a message. Just to scare ya a bit. For putting ol’ Richie back in jail. You know that possession charge was bogus.”

               “Yeah but it put the Oxy trade on hold for a bit and the Marshalls needed some extra time to catch a guy out of Florida.” There was a guy in the trees, and one behind the pastor’s truck. Of course, Pritchard was the farthest away. “It was nothing personal. But I gotta ask. What was your next step? You shot up my girlfriend’s house. Now what?”

               “Uh, like I said. I didn’t really expect for all y’all to be home right now . . .”

               “Can I make a suggestion?”

               “Um. Sure. Go for it.”

Seth checked his watch. “Well, I say you got about thirty seconds before the Marshalls roll up and arrest you all for attempted murder. It could work in your favor if you toss your guns and lay flat on your stomachs, hands over your heads.”

In the distance, a police siren echoed over the tall trees. Silence followed.

               “I’m coming out now, boys, and you all better be in the assumed position.”

Seth kicked out the screen door, holding low, gun raised and pleasantly found the three men with their heads against the ground and all fingers linked behind their heads. Seth shook his head as the siren grew louder and stood to his full height. He pocketed the gun and walked out onto the porch to greet the oncoming marshals.

A moment later the screen door blasted open again and Kate stormed out onto her grandmother’s porch, shotgun loaded and a fierce glare in her eyes. She waved the barrel across the open land. Seth watched her with a smirk on his face.

               “Satisfied the threat has been neutralized?”

She lowered the gun and frowned. “No. I wanted to shoot something. They really fucked up my dinner.”

               “You broke rule number one.”

               “Oh, shut it, Gecko.”

* * *

               “Does it hurt a lot, Daddy?”

Jacob Pastor slowly shook his head as he and his daughter watched the nurse properly bandage his bleeding arm on the emergency room bed. Seth had casually left to get coffee and Kate quietly wanted to come with him.

Her father shook his head, but smiled gently.

               “No. Nurse Fanny here has been just a peach.”

               “Stop it, Pastor, you’ll make me blush.” The sixty-year-old woman with faded, curly red-hair rolled her eyes and cut the gauze. She looked to Kate. “I’ll be back in five with his pain meds.”

               “Thank you.”

Kate tried to smile through the heavy weight in her chest. Her father had been distant since he got into the ambulance.

The door closed behind the nurse, only to open again when Seth slipped through the crevice with two steaming Styrofoam cups. He handed one to Jacob, who took it with dark apprehension.

               “Sir, what happened earlier—,”

               “Don’t, son.”

Kate grimaced, her eyes closed. That was _not_ a good sign. Jacob looked up, his eyes sullen once again.

               “Look, Katie, I understand you’re a grown woman now, and my word means little to you—,”

               “Daddy, you know that’s not true—,” she huffed.

But he waved her words away. “I know you think it’s just your old man acting a fool, and— no ill respected intended, Mr. Gecko— but the Geckos bring around a dangerous crowd. And I don’t want you mixed up in it.”

Kate’s heart constricted and she kept the tears in her throat. Then (perhaps) masochistically, she took Seth’s warm hand in front of her father and squeezed it tight. “You know life here in Harlan is not an easy one. Or a safe one. But Daddy, he’s nearly gotten shot for me at least a dozen times. And I know he would do it a hundred times again. I’d rather have Seth by my side here than not at all.”

               “But how many times that you nearly got shot was because of him?”

               “Everybody gets shot at here. You _know_ that.” Her eyes fluttered, exhaustion seeping in through the back of her skull, and wet frustration at her father’s uncompassionate response pricked her. “He taught me how to shoot, how to keep my head down. He is the safest thing I have here, so either it’s him or I leave Harlan.”   

               “Kate, c’mon—,” Seth muttered quietly.

               “No. He needs to know I’m serious.” Kate held her father’s gaze, her chin pointed out, in what she hoped resembled Joan of Arc before her funeral pyre.

               “You look so like your mother,” the pastor whispered, his eyes suddenly glazing over. Then he dropped his daughter’s watchful eye and blinked twice. When he looked back up, the righteous man of steel had returned. “I must admit, I am pleased to see your first instinct is to protect my daughter over your own life.”

               “Instinct and a reflex, sir.”

The door opened again and Fanny the nurse appeared again.

               “You comfortable over there, Pastor?”

Jacob Fuller’s features softened back to the warm man of God the county knew him as. “I do believe I am.”

               “That’s good to hear. The doc wants to keep you here overnight, on the account of your recent heart troubles. Ms. Kate here can pick you up in the morning.”

Kate nodded stiffly, anger and hurt crashing against themselves in her chest. She turned back to her father again, with his sad eyes.

               “Good night, Daddy. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

               “Sir.”

               “Marshall.”

* * *

               “So, I think that went well.”

Kate yanked her pearl earrings out of her earlobes and scowled. “By well, do you mean the absolute worst possible situation that could fathomably occur, did in fact occur?”

She kicked off her white heels, irritated, and went to take the rest of her hair down from the half-bun on the top of her head.

Behind her, Seth was removing his watch and unbuttoning his white collared shirt.

               “Baby, it wasn’t that bad.”

               “Seth, we got shot at. Multiple times.”

               “But they weren’t trying to kill us. If they had been trying to kill us, then maybe it would be that bad.”

Her hair fell around her shoulders, and Kate dropped her head into her hands.

               “I just wanted one night. Just one simple night. To show off my damn slow-cooker and my hot boyfriend.”

               “I thought I was both,” Seth chuckled, referring to her insistence that he was basically a second furnace in the bed next to her.

               “Ha. Ha.”

He took off his white shirt and dropped it onto the dresser in the bedroom of Kate’s house. He walked over and dropped a single kiss into the curve of her neck, his hands sliding down the zipper to her dress.

               “I’d liked all those things you said at the hospital. That you feel safe with me.”

Kate pulled away from her hands and looked at him over her shoulder. “If he doesn’t approve, do you understand how difficult it will be for us to be in public? He’s got eyes everywhere.”

               “Mhmm, then think how hot it will be for us to make out in secret—,”

               “Seth, this isn’t funny.”

               “I thought I got flirty when I got nervous?”

               “Are you?” She was pleading with him. “Do you really understand what could happen if he doesn’t like you?”

Seth sighed and knelt down next to her. When her eyes dropped, he saw the lens of tears hovering in her eyes. “Kate, and this is the God’s honest truth, no, I’m not worried. Because eventually I’m going to wear him down. Because I’m not going anywhere. You eventually learn to love all your warts.”

He smiled at her and she felt her heart ache. Kate reached forward and ran a soft thumb over his stubble.

               “I’m so in love with you, I don’t know what I’d do if you weren’t here.”

               “Probably having a nice evening meal with your father.”

Kate rolled her eyes, tears rolling back, and leaned down and kissed him. “Just take me to bed, Deputy.”

               “I think that can be arranged, miss.”

Together they slid her out of her cotton dress, the straps sliding over her pale shoulders. He kissed her again when he unhooked her bra, and kissed her still when he carried her over to their bed.

The moon fell in from her open bay window and the light turned her skin luminescent.

               “He’ll see it one day. I know I do.”

Her thumb traced his full lips and he nipped at it with his teeth.

               “See what?”

               “See that you’re a good man.”

Her mouth parted when his hand slipped below the waistband of her underwear.

               “There’s always the holidays.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> to whomever requested this, i'm pretty sure this isn't what you had in mind, but I've been binging Justified on APrime, it's just on the brain. plus it fits really well, so i'm sorry? please don't hate me. if people actually like the setting, i might do more. mostly so i can write long, superfluous language about seth gecko as a defender of justice.


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